Despite what the pundits want us to think, contested primaries aren't civil war, they are democracy at work, and that's beautiful.

We need leaders who will stand up for the little guy and listen once again.

I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'

To paraphrase Hemingway, people go broke slowly and then all at once. We've been slowly going broke for years, but now it's happening all at once as the world's capital markets are demanding action from us, yet Obama assumes we'll just go borrow another cup of sugar from some increasingly impatient neighbor. We cannot knock on anyone's door anymore. And we don't have any time to wait for Washington to start behaving responsibly. We'll be Greece before these D.C. politicians' false promises are over. We must force government to live within its means, just as every business and household does.

Remember, the enemy comes to kill still and destroy. But now they're going to inspect themselves? Oh, what could go wrong with that? Yes, don't call us. We'll call you, they say. And that's really good because [Barack] Obama is standing by with his mighty phone and his mighty pen in case they stretch the truth a little. And they start dropping bombs.

Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests. The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.

Well, I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment, and I've learned quickly these last few days that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.